Town of Canandaigua taking measures to make business more open and accessible

Sunday

Mar 16, 2014 at 7:53 AM

By Megan Brandow mbrandow@messengerpostmedia.com

CANANDAIGUA — It’s a week dedicated to promoting open government and freedom of information.

Sunshine Week is important not just for media outlets, but for anyone who wishes to be an informed citizen and have access to the everyday business of government, say open-government advocates.

For the Town of Canandaigua, where questions about open government dogged the administration of former supervisor Sam Casella, the goal, said Supervisor Pam Helming, is to practice the values of transparency every day.

Canandaigua town government has gone through significant changes in the past few months. Besides a new town supervisor, there is also a new town clerk and a new board member. Since January, a slew of vacant staff positions have been filled, including director of development and code enforcement officer.

With new blood comes a new way of doing business. Helming is leading the town’s effort to provide more detailed meeting agendas and minutes, encouraging feedback from residents and using technology to better communicate with the public.

One of the first actions of the board was to set a regular meeting schedule. The board now meets twice each month on a set schedule, which has eliminated the need for special meetings, Helming said.

Another action was to make meeting agendas and minutes for all town meetings more comprehensive. In the past, the agendas rarely included the resolutions that were to be voted on, Helming said, and never included supporting documentation for the resolutions. Board members decided to revamp the structure of the agendas to make them more user-friendly.

“The resolutions themselves are written in much greater detail than before,” Helming said. “The resolution tells a story and gives an explanation for the action the Town Board is going to take. Those who are too busy can look online at the agendas and resolutions and get the whole story.”

Also, the board now explains why it needs to meet in executive session, and executive sessions are now included on the agenda, new board member Keith Cutri said.

Canandaigua resident George Herren said he attends a few meetings each year, usually when there’s a specific topic he has taken interest in. He said detailed agendas are important so people can stay informed about the issues they care about and speak their mind.

Herren has lived in the town for 40 years, and has seen the progression of local government in that time.

“Over the years I’ve noticed a lot of improvement in all local government issues having to do with openness, public meetings, transparency, willingness to share information with the general public and holding greater number of meetings,” Herren said. “As time moves on it would only seem natural within the world of progress that we’re going to see a lot more of that, and people are more interested in what local government is doing.”

Helming said she’s pleased with how much interaction she has had with residents within the first three months of her four-year term.

“I think people are excited there’s been a change at Town Hall,” Helming said. “There’s this renewed energy and interest. We’re willing to listen to what people have to say and incorporate their ideas.”

In order to hear more from residents, the Town Board changed the structure of a typical meeting allowing for more public comment (three at each meeting) at crucial times, like before voting on a resolution. Also, after hearing feedback from residents, there will now be time for public comment at the start of the meeting before the board votes on the agenda or bills.

Cutri, who heads up the town’s newly formed technology committee, said it’s as simple as making subtle changes that have a large impact. One initiative was to change the format of online documents from a word document to PDF for easier downloading and printing.

Another project for the technology committee was to create an automated email system that keeps residents in the loop about town meetings, road closings and other news. This solution was easy and free, Cutri said, and will help make information more accessible.

“It will help residents know when they need to come to a meeting or when they don’t. They don’t have to be as vigilant,” Cutri said. “Before Pam and I got working on this, it was up to the residents of the town to get on the website or seek out information or hear it from word of mouth. Now we just want to make it transparent: here’s the agenda; here’s what’s going to be said; here’s what’s potentially going to be decided on.”

So far, about 50 people have signed up for the email updates since they were made available less than two weeks ago.

Cutri said the committee is also looking to integrate smartphone and tablet technology in the future and use social media to share information. For example, the town may link the automated email system to a Facebook page, so those who do not subscribe to the updates can still see the announcements online.

The town has also looked into utilizing the services of FLTV — a public TV station run by Finger Lakes Community College — to broadcast the meetings live. Cutri said that service would cost the town money, so they are weighing their options. If that doesn’t happen, they will live-stream the meetings on their website using their own equipment.

Cutri said the town understands that residents may not want to sit through a two-hour meeting on a weeknight, so there should be other ways to access all the information from the meeting — like live video, email notices and detailed documents.

“This is Canandaigua. We’re all neighbors; we’re all associates; we’re all friends,” Cutri said. “We know each other, and we really want to know what our government is doing.”

To sign up for email alerts or to contact Town Board members, visit townofcanandaigua.org.